Stigs

the G14 is definitely an option, but I'm not a huge fan of the trackpad, lack of webcam, and aesthetic design. Definitely not deal breakers, but I want to see what all my options are. EDIT: I do acknowledge that performance wise, the g14 is far ahead of anything else I've seen in this price range

Hey everyone! I am currently in the market to replace my 2014 Razer Blade 14. Between thermal issues, the GPU not functioning for more than 5 minutes in even easier to run games before crashing (issues with power delivery), the battery lasting for about 45 minutes while only web browsing, and the laptop never telling me when it is low on battery, have made me start searching for a replacement. I am looking around $1600 (give or take a bit). I'm preferably looking for a laptop that can handle everyday use (web browsing, word documents, music and movie streaming, etc), light gaming (older titles and newer titles at lower settings), occasional 3D modeling (SolidWorks and Fusion360) and occasional photo editing (nothing professional, but can handle a light session in photoshop or lightroom). Ideally I think I'm looking for something along the lines of: - Decent battery life (6hrs of light use minimum) - 16GB of RAM - 4 core/8 thread cpu - Max brightness of about 300 nits for the display at minimum (the blade 14 is only about 260 nits at peak brightness and is hard to see when working in bright lit areas) - probably a lower end, discrete GPU for gaming - Thin and light (if possible) I was looking at the XPS 15 9500 (which is a bit over budget), as I liked the keyboard, trackpad, screen, and overall size, but I didn't know if there was a better option, or if there are laptops coming out in the next few months that might be of better value. Thanks for the help!

No I don't.

Hey Everyone! Over this past weekend I turned on my desktop to use for the first time in a few weeks. I used it to watch YouTube and looks through files for about an hour, and then I didn't use it for the next several hours but I left it on (however it is possible that folding at home was running in the background, but I do not believe I had it setup to run at that time). I came back to the room a few hours after using it to the smell of burning electronics. The system had turned itself off on it's own, and when I took it apart, the GPU (gtx 980 ti) smelled like it was the item that had been shorting out/burning. The system wouldn't boot with the 980 ti installed, but it would boot with my old gtx 660 ti. I haven't used my PC much since putting the 660 ti in it, but it seems to be working fine. My question is: How do I determine if this was an isolated issue with the 980 ti, or if this failure was caused by another part of the PC? I upgraded my pc to a ryzen 3600, a MSI B450 mobo, and a Seasonic 80+ Gold PSU back in February, so I don't believe that those parts could have caused the issue, but I don't want to rule anything out, especially the PSU.

Ok. Interesting. I took the main boot SSD out to retrieve some files, and that worked just fine, so maybe it is the power supply. I can check that. Thanks

Hey everyone! I'm having some trouble with my desktop not getting past the motherboard screen in the boot cycle. I have an i5-3570k with a z77-d3h from Gigabyte. When I boot up, it shows me the motherboard screen and does its normal beep for boot up from the mobo speaker, but it never leaves that screen and the beep cycles every 30 seconds or so. When I try to enter the bios, I hear a clicking sound coming from my PC. I'm guessing I have a dead or partially damaged motherboard, but wanted to see if anyone knew what this issue is and if there are any fixes I can do (that aren't replacing the motherboard). Thanks for your help!

So I ran Unigine Valley again, but this time with a fully charged battery as well as being plugged into the wall. The test ran most of the way through this time before the system shut down. I think you might be right @Pasi123 that it's trying to draw too much power. I can try tweaking a few settings, maybe try reinstalling some drivers, to see if it helps, but it might still just be a need to replace the battery.

It's possible, but that seems odd to me. I can try checking with Razer and seeing what they say. I'll also fully charge the battery and run the test (with it still plugged in) and see if it runs the test at all rather than just immediately crashing.

yeah. I ran these tests with the battery disconnected, so maybe that's it? The laptop has an i7-4702MQ, GTX 870M, 8GB DDR3 RAM. The battery is a 70Wh, Li-ion battery. The charger is the charger that came stock with the laptop. It's a 150W charger with a 19 volt, 7.9 amp output.

So I just ran some stress tests without the battery. CPU and Memory tests run through the Intel Tuning Utility went fine. Then I ran Unigine Valley. With 3 seconds of the test loading, the laptop crashed. I'm assuming this means there is an issue with my GPU, which I am unsure that I'll be able to get fixed without replacing the motherboard of the blade.

Yeah. I don't believe it is temps (I will check though). I'll try running a few stress tests when I get the chance to see if I can pin point the issue to the battery. Thanks for the help!

Hey everyone! My 2014 Razer Blade is having an issue where it shuts down anywhere between 3 and 10 minutes into a gaming session while it's running off the power adapter. I contacted Razer about this and they had me try a few software fixes, because along with this, the laptop usually doesn't know what percentage of the battery is left when it's not plugged in. However, besides those two issues, the laptop functions normally from doing day to day tasks to creating models in SolidWorks. Whenever the laptop jumps into its high performance mode is when it seems to crash. We determined it's probably a hardware issue, but because it's a 2014 model, they don't have the parts to fix it. Now they didn't specify which parts I would need if I wanted to source them and repair it on my own (whether it be just the battery, or a new battery plus other parts, etc.). Does anyone know of what I might need or if there is something software wise that I could still do. I don't game on the blade often, but it's nice to be able to play things when I'm on the go, and I'm kinda hoping to be able to do that again without needed to purchase a new laptop.

I'll definitely look into all this. If it's more a matter of when, then I'll hold off getting a new phone until the Pixel 3 Lite release because having stock android and a good camera would be super nice (assuming the phone is good otherwise). Thanks for your help!

This makes me tempted to wait to see if google actually does release this.

I haven't looked at the A8, I have looked at the S9 and considered pushing my budget to the $550 to get it. Some places will give me about $100 for trading in my old iPhone 6s, so that also helps a bit.

True a pixel 2 is certainly an option.

Any word on the time range on when the Pixel 3 Lite might release?

I'm not an authority on the subject, as I'm just a mechanical engineering student, but I'd say a degree in Computer Engineering (combines Electrical Engineering and Computer Science courses) would be your best bet to get into the hardware manufacturing industry. And if your university doesn't offer Computer Engineering, but offers Electrical Engineering and Computer Science majors, you can consider double majoring (however this will either extend your time at university or will make course loads per semester very heavy).

Hey all! I'm in the market for a new phone. I've been using an iPhone 6S for the past 2 and a half years and I'm really wanting to go back to Android. I'm looking for a phone I can get for like $450 dollars (maybe more depending, but that's my cap for right now). The big sells for me on a phone are battery life to get me through at least a day on a single charge and camera (I use my phone as my main camera everywhere I go, so this is super important to me). If any of you have a suggestion for phones to look into, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I can't remember what the first LTT video I saw was exactly, but I believe it was this one: I found LTT in my recommended videos somewhere around 2011/2012 after watching this video on NCIX:

Sounds like a solid PC for what you want. I prefer around 45 fps and higher, but I know people that can't tell a major different between 30 and 60, so if you don't notice, save your money I suppose. As for the name, Tortex is solid. I used to play guitar with Tortex picks actually. I use Ultex Jazz III XL's now, but I might go back to the Tortex at some point.

My entire system, bar SSD and another HDD are all from late 2012. I would try and salvage the CPU. Yeah a 3570k is an older CPU, but it shouldn't bottleneck a GPU like a 1060 or RX 480 that I would through in the system as a replacement, and finding a motherboard for it shouldn't be too hard. Hopefully, I won't have to worry about this.

Wow, I believe you. It's funny to think what was a card that was pretty much as good as the 670 at the time of purchase over 4 and a half years ago is so "weak" now.

Yeah. I've had a 1080p monitor for a while. Okay. I'll look into pricing and performance. Thanks

So I've been contemplating a GPU upgrade for some time now. Back in October I posted about 1440p gaming. I've decided to stick to 1080p for now. Anyway, if I were to get a new GPU for 1080p gaming, is now a good time? Options like the 1060 and RX480 being cheap seem good. I'm currently running a MSI GTX 660 TI Power Edition and it's good in most games, but others need a few settings dialed back. I could overclock it more than it's stock overclock to get some better performance I suppose. I'm also running an i5-3570k at stock so I could overclock that too. Speaking of the i5, will that bottleneck anything? I don't believe so, but I'd like to be sure. Anyway, thanks for the help. TL;DR Is it a good time to upgrade for 1080p from a GTX 660 Ti?